Ninja
The Ninja is a versatile agility-based class from Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City. It focuses on low-cost special abilities for enemy disruption, evasion, and attack. The Ninja has a special appearance in Etrian Mystery Dungeon. It is the fastest class in the game. Ninja have some status affliction and support skills, but their main asset is speed and evasion. They will nearly always strike first and hit accurately. They have the lowest HP and VIT of any class in the game and can only wear Clothing armor. A Ninja's main weapon is a Knife. They can equip Katanas, but have no special skills for them. Gameplay and Skill Breakdown Ninja can take on many different roles depending on what special abilities they choose. Their power is not obvious at first, since Ninja have very weak base offense and defense, but their skills turn their incredible speed into significant forces of enemy disruption, ally support, evasion, and attack. Ninja are most naturally suited in a support role. Without any evasion skills, Ninja are greatly vulnerable to dying, and should generally stay in the back row, where their class skill Keburi No Sue (smokescreen) grants them a unique advantage. It removes the melee range penalty, and subtracts a maximum of 9 TP from all their skill costs, including those from subclasses. Bunshin, one the Ninja's most iconic skills, forms a complete duplicate of the caster in an empty party space - enabling faster action rates - at the cost of dividing the caster's HP and TP between the clones. The new clone gets its own chance to activate Nikudan, even if the original ran out of uses (same with Endure and Ascetic Rewards). Ninja can fill more empty party spaces with illusionary Kagerou shadows to distract the enemies' attention. Ninja have skills like Fukubari blowgun darts and Izuna that inflict powerful status ailments, and can spread them throughout the whole enemy group with Suikyou. Ninja have extremely potent evasion capabilities. Almost every attack in the game can be dodged, allowing Ninja to face down even the strongest enemies alone or nullify major quantities of damage for the team. Maxing out Senpuku and Kumogakure adds up to about 110% dodge chance, and Karuwaza makes all of those dodges restore up 20 TP each. Their evasion can be further boosted by Wind Tactic and by afflicting enemies with Blind, but remember that Leg Bind and several status ailments will render Ninja unable to dodge anything. Even though Knives are weak weapons, Ninja's Knife Skills boost damage slightly more than the skills for other weapon types. Katanas give Ninja much better autoattack damage, but Knives make Ninja more versatile offensively. Tagen Battou will deal the most damage a Ninja can possibly deliver, but it requires a specific skill choice and playstyle to be most effective. For every active Bunshin clone (not Kagerou shadow!), Tagen Battou's damage will double, so that every ally you take out of your party increases your ability to one-shot the enemy team. This strong attack is only practical with high-level evasion skills, since using Bunshin and Kumogakure so many times often leaves clones with 1 HP. Ninja are generally unorthodox fighters and supporters, needing free space to deal damage or allies to use their low-cost skills with. Stat Progression Does not include any stat bonuses from skills, equipment, Books, or Retirement. EO3 = |-| EON = Skill Tree Etrian Odyssey 3 Skills are listed in the same order used in the game and do not necessarily unlock one after another. See the "Requires" column to see how to unlock a skill. If that cell has dashes in it, no other skill is needed to unlock it. Skills are normally maxed at level 10, but there are some exceptions where the level cap is 5 or even 1, shown in the "Extra" column. * Class Skills are passive benefits unique to the primary class. * Mastery Skills (exception) apparently Ninja have no Mastery Skills. Probably since everyone can already use Knives. * Passive Skills automatically grant bonuses or effects whenever conditions are met. * Knife Skills require an equipped Knife to use. * Ninjutsu Skills represent ninja tricks, the one example is an attack. * Counter Skills, after use, activate their effects after being struck by an enemy attack. * Special Skills encompass any ability not covered by another category. * Support Skills change the properties of allies or enemies in battle, but normally don't damage or heal. * Escape Skills assist the party in escaping from battle. Etrian Odyssey Nexus Novice = |-| Veteran = |-| Master = Subclass Options EO3= Since Keburi No Sue makes every subclass's skills more spammable and flexible, there is really no "wrong" subclass to give a Ninja. That said, there are a few that compliment a Ninja's natural capabilities particularly well. *'Monk:' Ninja synergize well with Monks, and their combination capitalizes on the strengths of both. Besides feeding TP off its own shadows and clones, each new clone gets its own use of both Nikudan and Ascetic Rewards. If used as the team's healer, definitely have Resurrect and decent evasion to survive as the last resort from defeat. *'Shogun:' The support and command skills are cheaper to use, but the main idea here is building Bloody Lance on one Shogun with Kaishaku, which kills Bunshin clones that activate Endure. *'Gladiator:' Berzerker Vow and Charge boost burst damage, making a Tagen Battou build significantly more powerful. *'Hoplite:' With this subclass, a Ninja with high evasion is better able to protect allies. Bodyguard, Overwatch, and Switch Stab are most helpful. Unknown which of Provoke and Otori has the better draw rate. *'Zodiac:' Keburi No Sue's utility has already been mentioned, but this subclass gets special recognition for its party-wide TP cost deletion potential. Ninja also deal decent damage with the Zodiac's spells. *'Arbalist:' The blinding from Smoke Grenade lets Ninja relax on their evasion skills. The Crossbow is also a great weapon that grants access to Snipe, which synergizes with Suikyou. *'Buccaneer:' Ninja have high AGI, so Pincushion has good damage potential. Swashbuckling helps Kubikiri activate more often. *'As Subclass:' Ninja also has very broad utility. The evasion is a great boon for most frontliners. If it isn't already used, Kagerou and Bunshin fill in the 6th party slot. For characters focused on status ailments, Suikyou is very potent, and Kubikiri applies to every autoattack. |-| EON= Subclass for Ninja *'Protector' skills go hand-in-hand with the Ninja's high innate evasion, replicating the Ninja/Hoplite class combo of EO3. Line Shield in particular covers a row for one turn, and most of these attacks going there will miss. A Ninja and their clone using Line Shield will easily cover the entire party, letting them focus entirely on offense without worry. The other Guard skills of the Protector don't scale off any stats, letting a Ninja use them safely - in particular, both the Ninja and their clone using a simultaneous Front Guard and Rear Guard protects the entire party at once. *'Survivalists' have skills that work with their user dodging attacks, which aid the Ninja's dodge-tanking abilities. Trickery and Chain Dance boost the Ninja's evasion through the roof, and access to Bow skills open up more offense options from the back row. Field skills like Risk Perception and Nature's Blessing are also good midgame investments for better exploration and harvests. *'Gunner' skills bring the binding Snipes to the table, and the Ninja's high Agility and Luck make it very easy for them to cripple enemies before they act. Between snipes and the Ninja's own skills they can access anything that isn't blind, paralysis, or curse. Medic Bullet also supports by providing simultaneous healing and ailment curing to one ally. *'Zodiac' skills are oddly fitting with the Ninja, due to their high Intelligence growth and better Magic Attack stat. This subclass gives the Ninja access to elemental damage when they can't deliver any more ailments, and any TP consumption concerns are easily petered out by the Ninja's innate discounts with Mystic Calm. *'Landsknechts' offer good passives like Proficiency and Initiative to make the most of the Ninja's high Agility that let them strike before their enemies move. Phys DEF Up and Status DEF Up can make the Ninja more resilient. Single Devotion gets maximum benefit as a lot of the Ninja's own attacks are single-element. A great subclass for Ninjas focused on raw damage, especially those built around Drawing Slice. *'Nightseekers' being very similar parallels to the Ninja, offer some great synergy. Between their Throw skills and the Ninja's own, a Ninja/Nightseeker can access every non-Stun ailment in the game. Blade Flurry also works excellently in conjunction with Beheading, letting the Ninja get more opportunities to proc the instant kill. Shadow Cloak offers a good fallback protection especially with a Ninja setting up clones. Between Knife skills, though, stick to Hawk Strike over Swift Edge, as a Lv4 Swift Edge will only barely outdamage a Lv8 Hawk Strike when all 9 hits connect. Ninja as Subclass Common sought-after skills from the Ninja's moveset include Mystic Calm for TP savings, Proficiency for a small but sufficient attack boost, and Status ATK Up for ailment-based classes. Some builds seek to use Ninpo: Double to create a duplicate of a party member who would synergize with themselves. *'Protectors' can use a Ninja subclass for Ninpo: Double to gain access to two shield skills at once, leading to interesting combinations like Front and Rear Guard at the same time, or each Protector raising a Line Guard to defend the whole party at once. Unlike the Ninja/Protector setup, this trades evasion and Double cost for better overall defenses. Be mindful that you cannot use Painless in an emergency if the clone is still alive. *'Survivalists' find great use in the Ninja's evasion-boosting passives. Ninpo: Smoke and Concealment are must-haves for dodge-tanking Survivalists especially when it's all a set up for a powerful Hazy Arrow. Status ATK Up can also compensate for their average Luck stat. *'Sovereigns' use the Ninja subclass for Ninpo: Double. The ability to have both clones support both lines at once easily substitutes the loss of access to Force Boost. Both the Sovereign and their clone, with their HP and TP regenerating passives, can also regain the HP and TP lost in making the clone. *'Nightseekers' take the Ninja's skills to increase their ailment infliction rate. Beheading works nicely with their own Blade Flurry to let them instantly kill without requiring investment in Shadow Cloak. Ninpo: Panic and Izuna give access to panic and petrify respectively for perfect ailment coverage, and Ninpo: Mirror works as a retroactive parallel to Spread Throw in getting ailments all around the enemy ranks. Dominance can also be used to quickly regain Force to trigger the Force Boost again. Concealment also raises evasion to compensate for the Nightseeker's fragility. Nightseeker/Ninja exchanges the Ninja's ailment infliction accuracy to further specialize in dealing massive damage to anything with an ailment. *'Harbingers' take Ninja for a stacking Status ATK Up, and Ninpo: Double lets two Harbingers work together to debuff an enemy to kingdom come, or alternate debuffing with Reap skills. The HP and TP cost of Ninpo: Double is easily fixed with the Harbinger's own Black Wave and Soul Absorb skills. Gallery Ninja group.jpg Trivia * Ninja uniquely have all of their skill names retaining Japanese Romaji language. Some Shogun skills also have this trait. * The brown-haired female Ninja greatly resembles one of the Ronin. Category:Etrian Odyssey III Classes Category:Etrian Mystery Dungeon Classes Category:Etrian Odyssey Nexus Classes